A Lasting Effect

The Red Scare left an ugly legacy: wholesale violations of constitutional rights, deportations of hundreds of innocent people, fuel for the fires of nativism and intolerance. Business groups, such as the National Association of Manufacturers, found "Red-baiting" to be an effective tool in postwar efforts to keep unions out of their factories. The Red Scare took its toll on the women's movement as well. Before the war, many suffragists and feminists had maintained ties and shared platforms with Socialist and labor groups. The suffrage movement in particular and had brought together women from very different class background and political perspectives. But the calls for "100% Americanism" during and after the war, destroyed the fragile alliances that had made a group such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association so powerful. Hostility to radicalism marked the political climate of the 1920s, and this atmosphere narrowed the political spectrum for women activists. However, in 1920, the Red Scare died down almost as quickly as it had begun. The spread of Bolshevism in Europe had slowed, and many domestic radicals had given up their fight or gone underground. Palmer, who had ambitions of being president, overstepped his authority and frightened growing numbers of prominent political, legal, and intellectual figures with his raids. The American public had also become tired of crusades, even against Bolsheviks, especially after they realized that the threat had been extremely exaggerated. Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding, a senator from Ohio, summed up changing popular sentiment when he called for the country to "return to normalcy."Nevertheless, exploiting the nativist sentiment that had been unleashed by the Red Scare, the Ku Klux Klan greatly increased its membership by turning its attention to immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews. By 1924, the Klan had become such a powerful political force that its resolution to burn a cross at the Democratic National Convention was only narrowly defeated.The Red Scare may have burned itself out, but its long term effects were profound. Organized labor was badly damaged when employers seized the opportunity to introduce the open shop, now called the American Plan, which forbid mandatory union membership. Social and economic reformers were thoroughly discredited, and the xenophobia of the era contributed to the anti-immigration laws of the 1920's. The sacrifice of civil liberties in the name of national security also had long-term repercussions, especially in times of war. Above all, the Red Scare showed the strength the Americans' appreciation and understanding of their own democracy and its constitutional ideals.